8 Bizarre Things Done By Devilish Dictators

1.Kim Jong Il Forced Filmmaker to Remake “Godzilla”
Shin Sang-ok, heralded Orsen Wells of South Korea was kidnapped and imprisoned somewhere in North Korea. He claims he was coerced to revamp the tyrannical country’s film industry. Dictator-in-waiting Kim Jong-Il was bent on showing the world that creativity could thrive in North Korea. And the outcome was a string of films like Pulgasari, a brazen Godzilla rip-off. Pulgasari was released to the world in 1988 and was a flop.

2.Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos Almost Had The Beatles Killed
Ferdinand and Imelda Marcos, rulers of the Philippines were big fans of Beatles. The Fab Four were asked to play in Philippines, on their 1964 world tour – and they consented to the invite. However, just when they arrived at their hotel military personnel tried to whisk them to the presidential palace for a meet up with the Marcoses. The Beatles had just flown in from Tokyo and needed rest, so they refused – and that enraged the First Lady Marcos. She spread the word around that the Beatles have insulted the president and his wife. A huge mob collected outside the hotel and the Beatles were threatened with death.

3.Mobutu Hosted Foreman Vs. Ali’s “Rumble in the Jungle”
In 1974 Don King a budding boxing promoter was looking for a venue to hold fight between arch-rivals Muhammad Ali and George Foreman. Mobutu Sese Seko, narcissistic dictator of Zaire (now known as Democratic Republic of the Congo) offered to host the fight in Kinshasa. The outcome was the legendary ‘Rumble in the Jungle’ that took place on October 30, 1974. The fight ended in the 8th round when Ali, thought to be the underdog knocked out Foreman.

4.Idi Amin Forced White Men to Carry Him Around
Idi Amin (President of Uganda from 1971 to 1979) was a merciless dictator notorious for his erratic behavior. When he installed himself President for Life, he commemorated by being carried aloft all over the streets by four white men. ‘We Africans used to carry Europeans, but now Europeans are carrying us. We are now the masters,’ he was quoted as saying.

5.Francois Duvalier and the Number 22
Haitian dictator Francois “Papa Doc” Duvalier was a hugely superstitious man and also a practitioner of voodoo. He reckoned number 22 to be specifically powerful – he grabbed power on October 22, 1957. Furthermore, he put a curse on President Kennedy, who in fact died on November 22, 1963.

6.Hitler Invented the Blow-Up Doll
Adolf Hitler, was looking to stop the spread of syphilis in his soldiers, so he invented the first blow-up sex doll. Called ‘synthetic comforters’ the dolls had blond hair, blue eyes and were small enough to fit in a backpack. Soldiers, however, refused to carry them.

7.Gaddafi Had 15 Female Virgin Bodyguards
Former Libyan dictator Moammar Gaddafi lusted after women — he even showered gifts upon Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice. However, his craziness went to the extreme when he employed female bodyguards to protect him. All the girls were virgins, and trained in weaponary.

8.Saparmurat Niyazov Changes His Name (And Everything Else) To Turkmenbashi
After Soviet Union collapsed in 1991 Saparmurat Niyazov, a Turkmen politician stepped in to fill the empty space. He changed his name to Turkmenbashi and built a revolving golden statue of himself in the center of the capitol. He also made sure that his name showed up everywhere, on money, street corners, vodka bottles, and he even rechristened the month of January Turkmenbashi.